The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-19
a MODEL GRAFTON.


eatriotic Sentiments Forcibly Expressed
by the Secretary of the Interior.
The Grafton by Mr.. Lamar on the
unvailing of the monument to Cal
houn recently was worthy of the ora
tor. Mr. Calhoun is known to most
Americans only as the great champion
of State sovereignty and teacher OF
the doctrines that led to the war OF
secession. He was much more and
else than that, but his connection with
the cause of the South and his ardent
conviction of the righteousness and eX-
cellence of slavery, sustained for years
in the Senate with unfinchins courage
and remarkable ability. made it una
voidable that his eulogist should dwell
upon this feature of his career and
upon the ideas by which that career
was guided. Mr.. Lamar did this with
entire candor and, though with
avowed sympathy with Calhoun, in a
spirit of unqualified loyalty to the
Union. There could be no more strik-
ing and conclusive proof of the COM
pleteness of the establishment of the
Union than the manner in which Mr..
Lamar, himself former Secessionist of
the extreme type, disposed of the
causes of secession and of its absolute,
final and perpetual defeat. 1t is enough
to point out that Mr.. Lamar finds that
secession was doomed by the force of
national evolution, by the fact that the
permanent needs and tendencies of the
some people" that declared its indie
pendence of Great Britain in 1875 were
indefinitely stronger than the needs
and tendencies of the South that sought
satisfaction in separation.
The speech of Mr.. Lamar was, there
fore, while n review of a most conspic-
uOus figure in the past, speech for the
present and the future. Itput aside, in
a eulogy of the greatest of State sover-
eighty leaders and before an audience
of his devoted admirers, the chief aim
of that leaders career, the chief of his
ayowed principles, as something buried
and the tomb sealed, and turned with
hopeful spirit toward the lesson of the
leader life for his countrymen to-day.
This Mr. Lamar found in Calhoun s
fidelity to conscience, in his high
standard of virtue in public life, in his
unselfish patriotism. and particularly
in his conception Of the public service
rs public trust. He pointed out Mr.
Calhoun's vigorous exposure and
pointed denunciatiOn of the applica-
ton of the spoils system to the Fed
eral service, and with peculiar en-
phasis his scathing criticism of the
plea that the spoils system could be
Justly applied by one Administration
in retaliation for its application by a
preceding Administration.
On this point the words of Calhoun
might well be quoted as bearing di-
rectly upon the situation to-day. He
was replying to Benton, who had
formerly sharply condemned the spoils
principle, and pledged the Admins
tration TO resist it: THE avowal of
such a principle may be justified at
this time by interested partisans, but Il
more impartial tribunal will regard it
in far different light. and pronounce
that sentence which violated faith and
broken pledges deserve. l
consider it as an evidence of that deep
degeneracy which precedes the down.
fall of a republic when those elevated
to power forget the promises on which
they were elevated, the certain effect
of which is to make an impression on
the public mind that all is Juggling
and trickery in politics, and to create
an Indifference to political struggles
highly favorable to the growth of des-
potic power. After quoting these
words Mr.. Lamar adds: II am proud
to say, fellow-citizens, that it has been
my good fortune to be associated with
one against whose Administration the
only criticism that has been pro-
nounced is his sacred regard for SINH
lar promises and the unconquerable
intrepidity with which he stands by
them"
1t is worth while to point out that
while a member of Mr.. Cleveland's Adj
ADMINISTRATION thus recognizes the
pledges of that Administration against
the spoils principle and vindicates its
adherence to that pledge, it is not
necessary or decent for subordinates in
ahe Federal service to devote their
time to offieious manipulation of the
patronage" they may be able to con-
troll for the purpose of fixing delega-
tons or building up machines.-M Y
l1c,,,es